REPORTS `PURE SPECULATION,' FOR NOW SPEEDWAY PREZ SAYS THERE'S NO SECOND WINSTON CUP DATE.

Byline: Louis Brewster Staff Writer

FONTANA - With three major events remaining on the California Speedway calendar, track president Bill Miller admits his ``plate is pretty full.'' But a second NASCAR Winston Cup date is not to be found on that plate just yet.

``There is no secret that we would love to have a second Winston Cup event at our facility,'' Miller said Thursday, commenting on the latest report that NASCAR has opted to change its schedule in 2004. ``The reality is we have no sanctioning agreement, and it's just another one of the scenarios that have been presented over the past few weeks.''

A report on national television, put together the week of the Auto Club California 500 at Fontana in late April, suggested NASCAR will move its Labor Day race from Darlington, S.C., to California beginning next year.

Miller, who returned to the facility Saturday after a week of meetings at Daytona Beach, Fla., said the reports were ``pure speculation.''

``Certainly there were discussions (at International Speedway Corp., owner of the Fontana track), but it was trying to figure out what direction the company was going in,'' Miller said. ``I did not bring back a second NASCAR Winston Cup date.''

Under the current scenario, which one racing-industry executive said was ``full of positive energy,'' Fontana would host a race on the Saturday night before Labor Day. The Southern 500 at Darlington, which has been on the NASCAR schedule since 1950, would be moved to North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham the first week of November.

According to a report at ESPN.com, NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter denied such a move.

``Not to my knowledge,'' said Hunter, head of the group's public-relations office. ``I think I would know if that was going to happen, and I don't see that happening.''

NASCAR president Bill France indicated before the start of the season the North Carolina and Darlington tracks could lose a date if the sanctioning body shuffled the second. At that time, France mentioned Fontana along with Kansas City, Phoenix and Chicago as tracks that could land a second date.

Since that January announcement, California Speedway officials have been working toward a possible second date. A few days before this year's Auto Club 500, the San Bernardino County Planning Commission approved an amendment to the speedway's conditional-use permit to allow competition after dark.

``We have the ability to run night races,'' Miller said.

A second Winston Cup event at Fontana would satisfy two major parties. ISC has indicated it would like to shift a race from one of its smaller tracks with two dates to one in a major market with a greater seating capacity. Additionally, television partner NBC would like to have a race (preferably at night for better ratings) in a major market.